


Win Some or Learn Some

by thewolfthatwrites



Series: This Relationship We're Staging [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Artist Cora, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Rare Pairings, Sassy Cora, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 08:39:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewolfthatwrites/pseuds/thewolfthatwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During his final semester at UC Berkeley, Stiles meets someone he wasn't quite sure actually existed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Win Some or Learn Some

**Author's Note:**

> So...I made it a series... =D
> 
> Huge thanks to [clawstothegunfight](../users/clawstoagunfight/) as always! She's the best.
> 
> Title comes from another Jason Mraz song, "I'm Yours" this time.

Stiles drops his backpack down onto the tabletop and plops himself into the chair. He’s early, like always; especially on the first day. He doesn’t get nervous anymore though, so that’s good. He’s in his final semester at UC Berkeley and finds himself feeling old as all of his fellow classmates finally begin to wander into the room.

This is a 100-level class, taken mostly by freshmen, and Stiles, apparently. The extra fine arts requirement had been added to his Folklore degree only recently and Drawing 101 was the only class that had any open spots. What makes matters even worse is that he doesn’t have an artistic bone in his body. He might have to resort to bribing his roommate Lydia to do his homework for him.

Suddenly there is a loud noise beside him, causing him to startle –slightly, he didn’t jump– and look up. A girl with large brown eyes is staring down at him, trying to cover up the smirk she wants to wear with an unimpressed look.

“You don’t care if I sit here, do you?” she asks while pulling out the chair beside him. Stiles can only shake his head. There is something oddly familiar about her, but he knows he’s never seen her before. She taps her pen on the closed, worn-looking sketchpad –the item that had been dropped– that’s in front of her.

Stiles can feel his left eye squinting a little as he watches her face, but he doesn’t care. He’s trying to place how he knows her.

“What?” she demands, turning her stony gaze on him. He opens his mouth to answer right as the professor breezes into the room, apologizing for being late on the first day. The girl rolls her eyes from Stiles to their professor in a graceful, fluid motion.

They sit and listen to the familiar spiel about what to expect and what will be expected of them. Next, the professor announces that she’ll be taking roll before doing a short exercise so she can see the level of talent each of them have.

Stiles taps out a beat against the tabletop as each name is called off. He’s listening on autopilot, knowing his name will be down toward the end of the list. So he’s a bit startled again when the girl beside him calls out the word here. He replays the teacher’s last few words.

There had been a Patrick Harrington, a resounding ‘Present’ in response before the name Cora Hale. Stiles turns to look at her with wide eyes, finally placing why he would recognize her.

“Oh my god. You’re Derek’s sister,” he basically accuses in a whisper.

Her sharp eyes are on him again, she lifts up one eyebrow and it is so reminiscent of her brother Stiles almost laughs. “How would you know that?”

“Something I’m not going to even attempt to pronounce, Stilinski,” the professor says, staring puzzledly at the sheet of paper in front of her.

“It’s Stiles,” he says back.

“Thank god,” she mutters jotting a note down on her list.

“So that’s how,” Cora whispers once the professor has moved on. Stiles turns back to see her eyes trailing slowly up his body. “You’re not what I expected.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I always thought you’d project more of a hipster vibe, and have on flannel.”

“I am not hipster,” he scoffs at her. He hears the professor give instructions on the simple opening drawing assignment and pulls out the brand new sketch pad from his backpack. Next to him, Cora flips to almost the end of her book to find a page that’s mostly blank, save for a few finger smudges. “My roommate refused to let me out of the apartment with flannel on this morning.”

Cora looks up at him and her eyebrows question his last statement, ensuring that she is in fact related to Derek, so he sighs and explains. “I’ve learned it is just easier not to argue with Lydia.”

“Lydia is your roommate? Really? I thought she hated you…”

“What? No, god. Derek is obviously full of lies. Except for the flannel. Lydia’s my best friend and roommate, yes, and I am not a hipster in any sense of the word. Also, I’m pretty sure that Derek doesn’t even know what a hipster is, so I don’t even want to know what he said about me to make you think that. Or, wait, I think he does because I remember explaining hipster blogs to him once after Erica made a crack about Isaac’s scarf. Oh my god, did he tell you the coffee joke about hipsters? Because that was seriously one time, it wasn’t my fault that place on Crow makes sure their coffee is scalding.”

“Shut up,” Cora growls at him. “I thought he had to be exaggerating. How can one person even talk that much?”

Stiles frowns and focuses on the paper in front of him. He stays silent for the next fifteen minutes, has to bite his tongue more than once when thoughts he could say aloud filter through his mind. He waits until she’s gone up to show their professor her finished drawing to get the go ahead to leave for the day to start packing up his own belongings.

 

 

“You will never guess who I met today,” Stiles calls out in way of greeting as he slams their front door behind him a couple hours later.

“I don’t know, Stiles, a lot of people go to Berkeley,” Lydia calls back and he can feel her condescending eye roll from the kitchen.

“I’ll give you a hint,” he sing-songs as he joins her on the sofa with a beer bottle in hand. “She actually does exist.”

“You’re kidding!”

“Nope! She’s in my art class and she is just as bitchy as Derek, let me tell you.”

“Are you sure? Did you talk to her or just hear her name?” Lydia questions him and the other girl’s existence.

“She sat next to me, Lyds, we talked about how her brother is a lying liar who lies,” Stiles tells her as he settles back into the cushions. “She told me to shut up, just like Derek used to. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be great friends soon.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The hipster joke if you haven't heard it before:
> 
> How did the hipster burn his tongue?  
> Because he drank his coffee before it was cool.
> 
>  
> 
> I love kudos and comments quite a bit!


End file.
